Through analysis of sociological, philosophical and legal material, Patrick Hanafin examines reproductive law in Italy, and the reasons why such a repressive piece of legislation could be produced at the end of a period of substantial change in the dynamic of gender relations.

Patrick Hanafin is Director of Research at the Department of Law, Birkbeck College, UK.

Contents: Introduction: conceiving life in law; Law, gender and nation in contemporary Italy; Rethinking reproductive freedom: the case of abortion; Vitapolitics: the campaign against reproductive choice; The embryo's sovereign power; Reformulating reproductive citizenship; Bibliography; Index.